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Power, Class, and Family: Men and Women in the Mexican Elite, 1750-1810*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John Tutino
John Tutino*
Affiliation:
St. Olaf College, and Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota
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Extract

This essay explores the social relations within a landed elite—the dominant class in eighteenth-century Mexico. It aims to outline the nature of the powers that sustained that elite, to determine who directly exercised those powers, and to detail the relations between those pivotal powerholders and the remaining majority of elite class members. My primary concern, then, is the relationship between elite power and class membership.

That, in turn, brings atttention to the roles of elite men and women, and the relations between them. Powerholders were usually men while class membership was shared equally between men and women. Was the internal structure of the elite thus based on sexual stratification? Were men able to be powerful and thus wealthy, while women could be wealthy only through subordination to a powerful man? To a great extent, that was true. But the majority of men within the Mexican elite were also wealthy while subordinate to a powerful man. And in a few notable cases, elite women exercised great power while men and women lived as their dependents. Sex was not the only principle of stratification among late colonial Mexican elites. Rather, sexual differentiation interacted with inequalities primarily based on economic power. This essay attempts to study the relations between economic power and sexual differentiation to approach an understanding of life within the late colonial landed elite in Mexico.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , January 1983 , pp. 359 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1983

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this essay was presented to the Berkshire Conference on Women's History at Vassar College in June, 1981. Asunción Lavrin early on encouraged me to undertake this analysis, and she provided helpful comments at the Berkshire session. Edith Couturier aided me with source materials, discussions, and comments on a later draft. Such encouragement and assistance is most appreciated by an author who is questioning some of the conclusions of Lavrin's and Couturier's pioneering work—yet who could not have written without them.

References

1 This essay attempts to integrate two recent trends in Mexican historiography. One emphasizes the socioeconomic importance of elite families and is best exemplified by the works of Brading, D.A. and Ladd, Doris: Brading, , Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763–1810 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971)Google Scholar; Ladd, , The Mexican Nobility at Independence, 1780–1826 (Austin: University of Texas, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1976).Google Scholar The other analyzes the roles of women in colonial Mexico, as pioneered in the works of Lavrin, Asunción and Couturier, Edith: Lavrin, , “In search of the Colonial Woman in Mexico: the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” in Lavrin, , ed., Latin American Women: Historical Perspectives (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978), pp. 23–59 Google Scholar; Couturier, , “Women in a Noble Family: the Mexican Counts of Regla, 1750–1830,” In Lavrin, , ed., Latin American Women, pp. 129–149 Google Scholar; and Lavrin, and Couturier, , “Dowries and Wills: A View of Women’s Socioeconomic Role in Colonial Guadalajara and Puebla, 1640–1790,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 59:2 (May 1979), pp. 280–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 This working definition of power is based on Adams, Richard Newbold, Energy and Structure: A Theory of Social Power (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975), pp. 10–20.Google Scholar My view of class aims to incorporate both the Marxian approach to classes as determined by relative controls of the means of production and the sociological view of class as reflecting the sharing of common values and ways of life. I perceive both factors as inherent in class structures and relations. My goal is to explicitly analyze the relations between class power (control of the means of production) and class membership (sharing in elite values and ways of life). For a discussion of often conflicting notions of class, see Giddens, Anthony, The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), especially pp. 14–98.Google Scholar For a formulation that is incomplete, but parallels the approach used here, see Weber, Max, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, ed. Parsons, Talcott (New York: The Free Press, 1947), pp. 424–429.Google Scholar Weber suggests that “property classes”—my powerholders— “often constitute the nucleus of a stratum,” which is a group of people who share a “style of life,” “a position of prestige by virtue of birth,” and/or “political or hierocratic authority. ” He suggests that strata thus defined are “most closely related” to the notion of social class. (All the quotations are from page 429.)

3 Tutino, John, “Creole Mexico: Spanish Elites, Haciendas, and Indian Towns, 1750–1810” (Ph.D. diss.: University of Texas at Austin, 1976),Google Scholar Table 1.3.

4 Ibid., Tables 1.4, 1.5.

5 Ibid., Table 1.8.

6 Ibid., Chapter 4; this concept of intra-elite stratification has been adopted in Colin MacLachlan and Rodriguez, Jaime, The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 225–226.Google Scholar

7 The present study is based on analysis of the surviving family papers—economic records and personal letters—of 6 of the 17 known great landed families. Given the close links among elite families, the records of one usually touch the affairs of several. Thus while my analysis could not take the form of a quantitative inquiry, it is based on exceptionally personal records that touch a large segment of a very small elite. My hope—and belief—is that the known social structures and relations of these families reflected patterns prevailing in the entire elite group.

8 Tutine, , “Creole Mexico,” pp. 19–26.Google Scholar

9 Brading, D.A., emphasized such an interpretation in Miners and Merchants, pp. 208–219.Google Scholar More recently, he revised his view in Haciendas and Ranchos in the Mexican Bajío: León, 1700–1860 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978). The view of the Spanish colonist seeking lands for reasons of status rather than clear economic advantage is perhaps primarily a legacy of the classic study of Chevalier, Francois, Land and Society in Colonial Mexico, trans, Eustis, Alvin, ed. Simpson, Lesley Byrd (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966).Google Scholar Chevalier often suggests such a view, yet much of his own evidence contradicts it.

10 Tutino, , “Creole Mexico,” pp. 167–178.Google Scholar

11 See Ladd, Mexican Nobility; de Recas, Guillermo S. Fernández, Mayorazgos de la Nueva España (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1965)Google Scholar; and Seed, Patricia, “A Mexican Noble Family: The Counts of the Orizaba Valley, 1560–1867,” (M.A. Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1975).Google Scholar

12 Brading, , Miners and Merchants, especially pp. 169–207,Google Scholar 303–328.

13 See Brading, Miners and Merchants; Ladd, Mexican Nobility; Tutino, “Creole Mexico.”

14 See, Ladd, , Mexican Nobility, pp. 71–88 Google Scholar; Tutino, “Creole Mexico,” Chapter 2.

15 Papeles de los Condes de Regla, Washington State University Archives (hereafter cited PCR), uncatalogued materials, folder dated 176S: “Testamento…” folder dated 1767, “Testimonio de don Joseph Julian Rodríguez García de Arellano;” bound materials, “Condado de Jala… 1836” fol. 10-17.

16 See the works of Lavrin and Couturier cited in note 2.

17 Lavrin, and Couturier, , “Dowries and Wills,” pp. 299–300.Google Scholar

18 See sources in note 15.

19 José Sánchez Espinosa Papers, Benson Latin American Collection Library, The University of Texas at Austin (hereafter cited, JSE), García Folder 213, no. 554,27 Dec. 1805; García Folder 214, no. 99, 27 May 1808.

20 Tutino, , “Creole Mexico,” Table 2.4, summarizes the family’s properties in 1781.Google Scholar

21 de Terreros, Manuel Romero, “Los hijos de los primeros Condes de Regla,” Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de Historia, 3:2 (1944), pp. 197–200 Google Scholar; Villena, Guillermo Lohmann, Los Americanos en las ordenes nobiliarias, 1529–1900, 2 Vols. (Madrid, 1947), 1, P. 369 Google Scholar; de Humboldt, Alejandro, Ensayo político sobre el reino de la Nueva España (1822; rpt. México: Editorial Porrua, 1966), p. 83.Google Scholar

22 de San Salvador, Fernando Fernández, Defensa jurídica de la Señora Doña María Micaela Romero de Terreros y Trebuesto, Marquesa de San Francisco (México, 1796)Google Scholar; Couturier, “Women in a Noble Family.”

23 de Terreros, Romero, “Los hijos,” pp. 192–193 Google Scholar; PCR, Vol. 120, 11 Oct. 1788; Gazela de México, 19 Dec. 1801; Couturier, Edith, “Hacienda of Hueyapan: The History of a Mexican Social and Economie Institution, 1550–1940” (Ph.D. diss.: Columbia University, 1965), pp. 97–98 Google Scholar; Kicza, John, “The Pulque Trade of Late Colonial Mexico City,” The Americas (October 1981), pp. 204–205.Google Scholar

24 JSE, Vol. 213, no. 18,1 May 1779; no. 20,2 May 1779; no. 79,18 Mar. 1789; no. 99,5 Apr. 1786; no. 489, 20 June 1804; no. 494,15 Sep. 1804; Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City (hereafter cited AGN), Bienes Nacionales, Vol. 164, 1782; Vol. 549, 1794; Gazeta de México, 18 June 1793.

25 Ladd, , Mexican Nobility, pp. 182–183.Google Scholar

26 Lockhart, James, “Capital and Province, Spaniard and Indian: The Example of Late Sixteenth-Century Tonica,” in Altman, Ida, and Lockhart, James, eds., Provinces of Early Mexico (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976, pp. 99–123 Google Scholar; Chevalier, , Land and Society, p. 304 Google Scholar; Ladd, , Mexican Nobility, pp. 210–213 Google Scholar; 215–217.

27 Chevalier, , Land and Society, p. 305 Google Scholar; Israel, J.I., Race, Class, and Politics in Colonial Mexico, 1610–1670 (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 178.Google Scholar 198–199, 255, 260; PCR, Vol. 54, 19 Dec. 1736; Vol. 71, 29 Dec. 1773; Vol. 105, 6 Sep. 1785; Vol. 121, fol. 126, Oct. 1800.

28 Tutino, “Creole Mexico,” Table 2.1.

29 PCR, Vol. 101, 1784; Vol. 105, 6Sep. 1785. This union continued a Santiago family tradition of using marriage to forge links with high colonial bureaucrats. Don Domingo Balcarcel was a senior judge on the Mexico City High Court for several decades prior to his death in 1783. He was married to a daughter of an earlier Conde de Santiago. In the 1790s, their heirs tried unsuccessfully to claim part of the Santiago family estate. See Brading, , Miners and Merchants, p. 40 Google Scholar; PCR, Vol. 109,1 Mar. 1788; “Ynstancia de don Ygnacio Leonel Gómez de Cervantes… 1793,” G257, García Collection, Benson Latin American Library, University of Texas at Austin.

30 PCR, Vol. 115, 20 Mar. 1795; Vol. 121, fol. 120, 1 Oct. 1800; Vol. 124, fol. 12, 17 Feb. 1802.

31 PCR, Vol. 118, fol. 18, 6 Mar. 1799; fol. 74, 14 Aug. 1799; fol. 90,2 Oct. 1799; fol. 94, 16 Oct. 1799; Vol. 121, fol. 149, 7 Dec. 1800.

32 PCR, Vol. 121, fol. 102, 30 Aug. 1800; fol. 114, 17 Sept. 1800.

33 PCR, Vol. 118, fol. 99, 6 Nov. 1799.

34 PCR, Vol. 118,fol. 5,23 Jan. 1799;fol.95,190ct. 1799; Vol. 121,fol. 128,140ct. 1800;fol. 130, 19 Oct. 1800; fol. 143, 22 Nov. 1800.

35 PCR, Vol. 118, fol. 47, 19 June 1799; Vol. 121, fol. 42, 22 Mar. 1800; Vol. 123, fol. 40, 9 Mar. 1801.

36 PCR, Fol. 109,1 Mar. 1788; Vol. 123, fol. 46,9 June 1801; Vol. 115,20 Mar. 1795; Vol. 124, fol. 69,6 Mar. 1802; fol. 49,23 June 1802; fol. 58,13 July 1802; Vol. 125, fol. 3, Jan. 1803; Vol. 129, fol. 4, 8 May 1805; Gazela de México, 4 June 1805.

37 “Ynstancia de don Ygnacio Leonel Gómez de Cervantes… 1793,” G257, Garcia Collection, Benson Library, University of Texas at Austin.

38 PCR, Vol. 124, fol. 16–17, 20, 13 Mar. 1802; fol. 29, 5 May 1802; Voi. 129, fol. 8, 7 Aug. 1805; Vol. 132, fol. 10,9 June 1806; The will is in Archivo de Notarias, Mexico City, Protocolos de Antonio Ramirez de Arellano, 1806. A copy of the will was kindly provided to me by Edith Couturier.

39 For the lease, see PCR, Vol. 124, fol. 20, 1 Apr. 1802; Vol. 125, fol. 15, 1 June 1803; fol. 17, 13 July 1803; fol. 25,9 Dec. 1803; Vol. 124, fol. 10, 8 Aug. 1804; Vol. 129, 2 Oct. 1805; Vol. 132,11 Sep. 1806; For the carrying trade, see PCR, Vol. 124, fol. 64,24 July 1802; fol. 67, 31 July 1802; Vol. 139, 21 Oct. 1809; Vol. 141,3 Feb. 1810; 5 Mar. 1810; 31 Oct. 1810; 20 Oct. 1810; Vol. 143,5 Jan. 1811. For the marriage, see Ladd, , Mexican Nobility, p. 211.Google Scholar

40 PCR, Vol. 138,4 Feb. 1809; PCR, uncatalogued materials, folder dated 1810: “Autos seguidos por el Señor Marqués de Salvatierra.”

41 Tutino, , “Creole Mexico,” pp. 193–302.Google Scholar

42 JSE, Vol. 213, no. 167,22 July 1789; Vol. 215, no. 92, lOMar. 1795; Vol. 213, no. 503, 13 Dec. 1804; no. 519, 20 May 1805; no. 529, 16 Sep. 1805; no. 532, 26 Sep. 1805; Vol. 214, no. 76,13 Sep. 1807; no. 116, 6 Apr. 1810; no. 133, 16 Feb. 1812.

43 Tutino, , “Creole Mexico,” pp. 277–288 Google Scholar; My general discussion of peasant communities reflects Gibson, Charles, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964)Google Scholar; Taylor, William, Landlord and Peasant in Colonial Oaxaca (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972)Google Scholar and Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979); and Morin, Claude, Michoacdn en la Nueva España de Siglo XVIII (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1979).Google Scholar

44 On women in pulque sales, see Taylor, , Drinking, p. 53.Google Scholar

45 Tutino, , “Creole Mexico,” pp. 303–342.Google Scholar

46 Taylor, , Drinking, p. 116.Google Scholar

47 PCR, uncatalogued materials, “Posesión de La Florida, 1777,” fol. 2; PCR, bound materials, “Posesión de San Javier, 1777,” fol. 3–4, 39–40, 75–78.